Why promo-code copies do not show up as link clicks

The two paths a buyer takes

1. The link path. Tap your link, land on the brand's site with tracking attached, buy inside the attribution window. Your click count goes up; if the program reports conversions, you see the sale.
2. The code path. Hear or see your code, open the brand's site directly, sometimes days later and on another device, enter the code at checkout. No click happens anywhere. Your analytics stay flat while the brand's redemption count rises.

Brand-side marketing tools describe codes as exactly this: attribution that works without a click. The creator-side consequence is rarely spelled out: if your only analytics are click analytics, the code path is invisible to you, and for code-heavy deals it can be most of your impact.

What counting copies recovers

A copy is a deliberate act: someone tapped your code to take it with them. Counting copies per card per day gives you the code path's leading indicator. It does not tell you a sale happened, and an honest dashboard never claims it does. It tells you which codes people actually want, which content drives them, and how big the gap is between your clicks and your real reach.

• High copies, low taps: normal for codes. Buyers go direct.
• High views, low copies: the offer or its framing is weak.
• Copies spiking after a post: that content works. Attach posts to cards so the pattern is visible.

How usecode.sh counts them

Every card on a creator page records views, shop taps, and copies as three separate daily numbers, and copy events fire on the copy button itself. Bot traffic is filtered before logging, and the numbers stay labeled as engagement, never as sales. When your deal reports redemptions, the two datasets line up: your copies lead, their redemptions follow.